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Executive Board
Background
Under Article 9 of RSPO's Statutes, RSPO shall be managed by an Executive Board comprised of sixteen members, designated by the General Assembly for a period of two years. The Executive Board members can be re-elected. The allocation of seats for the various sectors of membership is as follows:
| Sector | Number of Seats |
|---|---|
| Oil Palm Growers | 4* |
| Palm Oil Processors and/or Traders | 2 |
| Consumer Goods Manufacturers | 2 |
| Retailers | 2 |
| Banks/Investors | 2 |
| Environmental/Nature conservation NGOs | 2 |
| Social/Development NGOs | 2 |
*One representative each for Malaysia, Indonesia, the smallholder sector and the "Rest of the World"
The First Executive Board was elected at the inaugural General Assembly held on 6 October 2004.Through staggered voting, within each sector, half the Executive Board is re-elected every year, at the Annual General Assembly of members of GA. When a seat is due for election any member in good standing from the particular sector may offer themselves to be elected. Incumbents may offer themselves for re-election or may continue if there are no nominations within their respective categories for the EB seats.
The EB meeting, at its first seating after the General Assembly, will elect, among themselves, the office-bearers of the organisation, until the next General Assembly of members.
The Office bearers for 2009-10 are:
President
JAN KEES VIS
Jan Kees Vis was trained as a chemist. He joined Unilever in 1985, at the Unilever Research Laboratory in Vlaardingen. He held several positions there, and then moved to the foods business. For more than 10 years he worked on Environmental Life Cycle Analysis, implementation of Environmental Management Systems, environmental auditing, organizing environmental training courses, environmental reporting and preparation of policy proposals on environmental issues. Since beginning of 2001, he is the responsible for coordinating Unilever's Sustainable Agriculture programme.
Email: Jan-Kees.Vis@unilever.com
Vice-President I
ADAM HARRISON
Adam Harrison is the Senior Policy Officer for Food and Agriculture for WWF based in Scotland. He has been working for WWF Scotland for the last 10 years on a range of rural, agriculture and food based policy areas. For the last 5 years that has focussed on working with UK-based companies using both palm oil and soya lobbying them to source these commodities sustainably. Before working for WWF in the UK he was based overseas from the late 1980s working in natural resources management and development in Nepal, Cameroon and Namibia.
Email: AHarrison@wwfscotland.org.uk
Vice-President II
DEROM BANGUN
Derom Bangun, a Chemical Engineer, joined PT Socfindo, a palm oil producer, where as Head of the Technical Department he designed and executed the erection of palm oil mills and refineries. He received an award from the Government of Indonesia for his contribution to the control of environmental pollution from rubber and palm oil mills. He is past Chairman (1999-2009) of Gapki. He founded and managed small plantation companies of PT. Kinar Lapiga, PT. Tara Bintang Nusa and PT. Bukit Mas Sawit Subur which are members of Gapki. He serves as Komisaris Independent at P.T. Tolan Tiga, a member of SIPEF group. He is representative of Gapki in RSPO.
Vice-President III
JEREMY GOON
Jeremy Goon is the Group Head of CSR at Wilmar International, where he is responsible for aligning the Group's activities to global best practices in environmental, social and economic sustainability. He also heads the Group's division for Carbon Offset Credit Development, which include Clean Development Mechanism Projects as well as other Carbon Abatement and Mitigation Initiatives.
Prior to this appointment, Jeremy was Head of European Operations for Kuok Oils and Grains, based in Germany and the Netherlands. His responsibilities included overseeing the Group's Edible Oil Refining and Trading activities in Europe. He has also served as Head of Brand Management and Marketing for the Group's operations in Vietnam.
Email: jeremy.goon@wilmar.com.sg
Vice-President IV
MARCELLO BRITO
Marcello Brito was trained in technical aspects and production of Palm Oil at Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia; oils and fats international trading at Federation of Oils, Fats and Seeds Association in London - England; social responsibility and nonprofit sector at Fundação Instituto de Administração and has a MBA in International Trading at FIA/USP and International Trading Management IAE - Grenoble / Pierre Mendes University - France.
He has 20 years of experience in the oils and fats segment and currently serves as External Advisor at Brazilian Agricultural Research and Development Institute; President of the Biodiesel Board at ABAG - Brazilian Agribusiness Association and Commercial Director of the Agropalma Group.
Email: marcello@agropalma.com.br
Treasurer
IAN MCINTOSH
Following an international career at Mars Incorporated, Grand Metropolitan Foods, and Northern Foods which provided a diversity of food industry experience, Ian McIntosh joined Aarhus United UK (formerly Anglia Oil Ltd) as managing director in June 1998. Following the merger of the Karlshamn Group and Aarhus United in 2005, he was appointed President of AAK West Division (USA, UK and Mexico) and Vice President of AAK AB. He served on the initial organising committee for the RSPO and then following its formal creation has served on the board. He currently serves as Treasurer. Mr McIntosh holds masters degrees in Engineering (Cranfield) and Business Administration (Bradford) and has been involved with the RSPO since its inception.
Email: ian.mcintosh@aarhuskarlshamn.com
Members of the Executive Board
MARC DEN HARTOG
Marc den Hartog
Following a career start at Unilever, he has been in various sales and marketing positions at Loders Croklaan. In recent years, he has been involved in IOI's expansion with Europe's largest Palm refinery in Rotterdam.
Mr den Hartog holds a master degree in Chemistry (Leiden, Netherlands) and is council member of NOFOTA (Netherlands Oils, Fats and Oilseeds Trade Association).
E-mail: marc-den.hartog@croklaan.com
PAUL NORTON
Paul Norton took over as Chief Risk Officer, HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad in January 2008.
Prior to coming over to HSBC Bank Malaysia, he was working in the Asia Pacific Regional Credit Risk Unit based in Hong Kong, as a Senior Manager Credit where he was responsible mainly for Corporate and Institutional Banking clients in several countries in the Asia Pacific region.
He started his banking career in London where he was primarily involved in corporate and commercial banking.
He has worked for the HSBC group for over 29 years. Paul has however spent the majority of the last 15 years in Asia, including two stints in Hong Kong and also over 4 years in HSBC Indonesia where as the Chief Risk Officer, he was responsible for credit risk management and corporate recovery.
He is British and married with two children.
Email: paulnorton@hsbc.com.my
JOHAN VERBERG
Johan Verburg is responsible for the corporate contacts that Oxfam Novib, the Dutch affiliate, has with multinationals on issues such as value chain responsibility. He has a background in consultancy on management and sustainability in Southern Africa and the Netherlands (KPMG, SGS a.o.).
Email: Johan.Verburg@oxfamnovib.nl
TIMOTHY J. KILLEEN
Timothy J. Killeen (Ph.D. Botany, Iowa State University) is a conservation biologist with a research agenda that has evolved over the course of his career, starting with plant taxonomy and ecology, but which evolved into efforts to use remote sensing technology to map biodiversity and document the impact of deforestation on biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions. Dr. Killeen has engaged both the private and public sectors in environmental evaluations of infrastructure projects in the Amazon and South East Asia, experiences that stimulated his interest in understanding the underlying social and economic drivers of deforestation. His dedication and accomplishments were recognized in 1999 when he received the Biodiversity Leadership Award from The Bay and Paul Foundations. He is currently a Senior Research Scientist at Conservation International and resides in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
Email: t.killeen@conservation.org
FAISAL FIRDAUS
Faisal Firdaus joined Carrefour in 2007 as Corporate Safety Manager and, at present, he's in charge of Sustainable Development. In this position, he liaises with the Carrefour Group Corporate Sustainability team in Paris on Group Sustainability policies and notably on the Group's objective to source sustainable palm oil. Before joining Carrefour, he held some positions in several industries such as Origination Engineer in CARGILL Environmental Finance; QHSE Manager in BAYER CropScience Indonesia; and EHS Department Head in Agro Indomas - Palm Oil Plantation and Mill. Furthermore, he spent two years in Australia conducting Post Graduate Diploma Degree. For his undergraduate, he went to the leading technical institute in Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology focusing on Chemistry and graduated in 1997.
E-mail: faisal_firdaus@carrefour.com
JOSÉ DEN TOOM
Ms. José den Toom is Chief Risk Officer of Rabobank Singapore since March 2008. She joined Rabobank’s Head Office credit department in July 2004, after having been employed by Deutsche Bank in various functions for 15 years.
Her current job entails overseeing the enterprise risk function within the branch. She is responsible for aligning the risk policy in the branch with the bank’s risk culture, appetite and risk management model. She is further tasked with ensuring that procedures and policies are in place to comply with the bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) principles. Given Rabobank’s ambition to contribute to sustainability efforts in the Food and Agribusiness area, she participates in the RSPO’s Executive Board and working groups.
Ms. den Toom has Degrees in both French and English language and literature. In her leisure time she enjoys playing golf and she has picked up Chinese painting while in Singapore.
Email: Jose.den.toom@rabobank.com
BELINDA HOWELL
Representative for Retailers Palm Oil Working Group. Members are – Asda; Boots; Co-operative Group Switzerland; Co-operative Group UK; Iceland Foods; Marks & Spencer; Migros; Royal Ahold; Sainsbury's; Tesco; The Body Shop International ; Waitrose.
Belinda Howell has extensive experience working in business on sustainability and climate change. She has worked in-house for Boots; as Director of Business in the Environment; and as European Director of Sustainable Solutions for URS. She led a carbon management company from start up and founded her own company, Decarbonize, to advise international companies on sustainability strategy and early stage cleantech on corporate development. She started her career as a research & product development biochemist in international development and for Biocompatibles.
Qualifications include a first class MBA. Belinda is an advisory board member of Scottish Power’s Environment Forum and Best Foot Forward.
Email: belinda.howell@brc.org.uk
TONY LASS
Email: tony.lass@csplc.com
MOHD NOR KAILANY
ABETNEGO TARIGAN
Email: nego@sawitwatch.or.id
Alternate Members of the Executive Board
JOHN BAKER
Email: john.baker@rabobank.com
PAUL ROWSOME
Email: paul_rowsome@carrefour.com
CHEW JIT SENG
Email: jitseng.chew@genting.com
PURPOYO GURITNO
Email: purboyo.guritno@gmail.com
CHONG WEI KWANG
Employed by HSBC Malaysia since 1991 Chong has served in various functions in the Bank. The last ten years was with the Risk function and within that in his present role as Manager Environmental Risk since 2005.
Before his long career in HSBC he graduated from MacQuarie University Australia with a Bachelor of Economics (Accountancy) and spent his initial working years in a public accountants firm before moving to HSBC. Chong considers his present role in HSBC as a homecoming in that it provides him the opportunity to work and engage with various stakeholders in the area of sustainability. He believes in a world where economic gains can be achieved without compromising the environment and social needs.
Chong is Malaysian and married with one daughter.
Email: weikwangchong@hsbc.com.my
PATRICK CORBUSSEN
Email: patrick.cobussen@croklaan.com
KATE GEARY
Kate Geary is a policy adviser at Oxfam GB on climate change and the private sector. Kate's work focuses on encouraging business to be part of the solution to climate change, both in changing corporate practices and harnessing private sector lobbying in support of ambitious government policy. She has worked to develop Oxfam's policy on REDD and is carrying out research into carbon markets and their potential to support or hinder poor people's access to natural resources.
Since graduating from Oxford University in 1990, Kate has worked for a variety of social justice, environmental and human rights organisations, including the Foundation for Ecological Recovery in Thailand and Cambodia.
Email: KGeary@oxfam.org.uk
NORMAN JIWAN
Email: norman@sawitwatch.or.id
JOHAN BUCHANAN
Email: j.buchanan@celb.org
GERT VANDERSMISSEN
Mr. Vandermissen is currently the Group Director of Operations for the SIAT Group that is active in the rubber and oil palm plantation sector in West and Central Africa. He is also the Managing Director of SIATGabon and sits on the board of SIAT Belgium, SIATGabon and CHC (Company Hévéicole de Cavally, Ivory Coast).
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture (Bio Engineer) from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium where he made his thesis on the valorization of the by-products of the oil palm industry. He is specialized in rural engineering and tropical agriculture.
Mr. Vandersmissen has also followed a special training course with CIRAD to detect suitable land for Oil Palm plantations using satellite images.
Under his management, the first set of rules and regulations which led to the current P&C for RSPO was tested on the SIAT estates and smallholders’ scheme in GOPDC, Ghana and resulted in the first export of sustainable palm oil to Migros in Switzerland in 2003.
Email: gert.vandersmissen@siat.be
CHERIE TAN
Cherie Tan is the Commodity Leader for palm oil for WWF International based in Singapore and oversees WWF’s work in promoting the use and production of sustainable palm oil in the market. She has been working for WWF since 2009 on palm oil issues and on issues relating to responsible forest finance. Before joining WWF, Cherie worked in agriculture finance in Asia and was based in Peru, Canada and Haiti from 1999 to 2006.
Cherie is the alternate to Adam Harrision for WWF International.
Email: ctan@wwf.sg
TIM STEPHENSON
Following an international career with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Tim joined AarhusKarlshamn A/S ("AA K") in the UK in 1995. AAK is a major palm oil processor and trader with refineries in northern Europe and the Americas. Tim is currently CFO of the West Division of AAK, with specific oil trading responsibility. He has been Ian McIntosh's alternate on the RSPO Executive Board since its inception, with particular input on matters pertaining to Ian's responsibilities as Treasurer. Tim has an MA (Oxon) in Mathematics, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.
Email: tim.stephenson@aak.com
Chair of Trade & Traceability Working Group (invited to Executive Board meetings)
MARIEKE LEEGWATER
Ms Marieke Leegwater currently chairs the RSPO Working Group on Trade and Traceability and for this reason is invited to meetings of the RSPO Executive Board.
Marieke works for the Dutch Product Board for Margarine, Fats and Oils, the industry association for the vegetable oils and fats sector in The Netherlands(MVO).Within MVO she is responsible for improving the sustainability aspects of soy and palm oil imports and communicate about this in The Netherlands. One of her main activities is to support the work of both the RSPO and the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) and raise awareness within the industry. Marieke studied law at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands.
Email: leegwater@mvo.nl
Advisor to the Executive Board
M.R. CHANDRAN
M R Chandran ("MR") was educated at King's College, South Australia and the University of Adelaide graduating in Agricultural Economics and Technology. He is a 46-year veteran of the agro-commodities industry with professional experience in the executive management of business operations within the tree crop plantation sector.
Having served for 35 years he retired as Director and Head of Plantations of Socfin Company Berhad in 1996. He was the start-up Chief Executive of the Malaysia Palm Oil Association (MPOA) and served this umbrella entity tasked with the function of balancing the needs and interests of the various sectors for synergy and development of the plantation industry, from 1999 to mid 2005. He was also involved in the formation of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), served as Chairman of RT1 in 2003 and appointed as a Vice-President during 2004/2005.
Email: mr.chandran@platinumenergy.biz
